Bach: The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080

Only someone driven to madness would listen to Bach's The Art of the Fugue all the way through, since any sane person might buckle under the weight of this supreme contrapuntal masterpiece. In the vertiginous breadth of his lines, the awesome scope of his harmonies, and the dizzying depths of the combinations, Bach reveals an eternal and infinite world of musico-mathematical meditations.So imagine how it must have felt for Helmut Walcha, the great blind German organist, to perform The Art of the Fugue. While that may truly ... Read More

Only someone driven to madness would listen to Bach's The Art of the Fugue all the way through, since any sane person might buckle under the weight of this supreme contrapuntal masterpiece. In the vertiginous breadth of his lines, the awesome scope of his harmonies, and the dizzying depths of the combinations, Bach reveals an eternal and infinite world of musico-mathematical meditations.So imagine how it must have felt for Helmut Walcha, the great blind German organist, to perform The Art of the Fugue. While that may truly be unimaginable for the sighted, it comes as close as possible to imaginable in Walcha's awe-inspiring performance of the work recorded in stereo in 1956, a performance of such unbearable intensity and such overwhelming concentration that the notion of notes on a staff, the concept of pitches and durations, and even the idea of musical space and time all dissolve in a universe of pure sound. It's truly heady stuff -- but, sane or mad, anyone who did get all the way through Walcha's... Read Less

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2007, Idis UPC: 675754976026 CD See All